After the frustration comes the laughter

Recently, I started a YouTube channel. The very first thing I wanted before shooting my first video was a microphone. My voice is not very strong and fails fast. Using the built-in microphone on my computer requires me to almost shout in order for my computer to pick up my voice. Moreover, the sound quality is poor. Knowing all this, I searched and searched my parents' electronics collection. Unfortunately, I struck out. They did not have an external microphone. So it was off to searching online for one.

I found a microphone which had decent reviews and was not too expense. I purchased it and impatiently waited for it to be sent and arrive in the mail. It finally arrived this week! I was so excited! I quickly opened the package and plugged it into my computer. I opened my movie recording application and recorded a short video. The computer detected the device. It looked as though when it was recording, the microphone was picking up my voice nice and strong. When I went to play back the video, there was no audio. I was stumped. I could tell the video had audio, but no audio was coming out of my speakers.

I recorded more and more practice videos. I kept having the same issue. The recording appeared to have audio, but when I played back the video, there was no sound.

I was absolutely frustrated. I searched online, but I could not find a solution. Then, I happen to flip through the small piece of paper which came with my microphone and had a scant amount of instructions on it. I saw in the directions it stated when done recording, unplug the microphone to playback the video. Immediately, I felt like an idiot! Duh! The external microphone is plugged into the earphone jack. If it is plugged in when playing anything with audio, my computer will send the audio to the earphone jack, instead of the built-in speakers. As soon as I unplugged the microphone and played back the video, behold, there was audio!!!

I was laughing uncontrollably after this all happened. I was so grateful and thankful the microphone worked. I was also laughing because I am sure I am not the first person to make this mistake since there were instructions telling me to unplug the microphone in order to hear the video playback. After feeling so much sadness and sorrow over the recent events in our nation, I was praising God for this moment of laughter.